” … Paul has drafted legislation with Senate Judiciary Committee ChairmanPatrick Leahy to give judges wider latitude to craft their own sentences as one way to relieve prison overcrowding and bring down the exploding costs of running prisons. The committee is looking at that bill and another that focuses on waiving mandatory minimum prison terms in some drug cases.

” … But … Scott Burns, the executive director of the National District Attorneys Association, said mandatory minimums had been a useful tool for state and local prosecutors and questioned the push to change them. ‘Why now?’ Burns said. ‘With crime at record lows, why are we looking at sweeping changes’?”